Clues in Life
by Lynders11
Summary: Rachel has to be the strong one for once


Title: Clues in Life  
Author: Lindy  
Fandom: The Hollows  
Summary: Rachel has to be the strong one for once  
Disclaimer: All characters, and the world they are set in belong to Kim Harrison. I just wanted to write!  
Rating: R

**CLUES IN LIFE**

The air pressure in the church shifted. I looked up from measuring my spell components wondering at the cause of it. A smile spread across my face as I realised it was from the front door opening.

Ivy was home.

"Rachel?" The vulnerability in her voice was my first clue.

"Rachel, are you home?" Just as I took a breath in to answer her question I heard her add in a low mutter, "Please be home." This was my second clue.

"I'm here Ivy." Turning my head to face the hall, still holding onto the all but forgotten spell components, I watched Ivy walk towards me. Her step was quick but noisy on the wooden floor, completely out of character for the usually silent Ivy. This would be my third clue.

As she stepped from the darkened hall into the brightly lit kitchen I finally got a good look at her eyes. They were a deep brown, rimmed in red as if she had been crying. Those eyes, the ones that have been so full of joy lately, were filled with sadness and something else. Need. Need for what _exactly_ I wasn't sure. My heart skipped a beat at the intensity of her gaze and then nearly broke when I saw the single tear roll down her cheek.

She took another step towards me and her demeanour and bearing confirmed what the clues had me suspecting. She was in severe emotional turmoil.

It had been two years now. Two years since we had gotten that fated phone call_. A human woman, who had gotten our number from Glen as the best resource she could ask for, was in a complete and total panic. Her child, and I mean child, barely out of training pants had been stolen. Taken from her in broad daylight. Practically ripped from her arms. It had been living vampires grabbing a snack for their depraved boss for that evening, who, it seemed, was flying out of town._

_Thankfully, though panicked, the woman had been coherent enough to explain where and when it had happened. The child, Alecia, had been taken not twenty minutes before. They living vampires were most likely on their way to the airport to prep the plane before sundown and await their boss' arrival. The lady said she had heard one say "hangar" and "wait" as they were taking off to their vehicle._

_Realising that we had an hour at most before the sun went down and we would have to face an undead, we took off. The only airport that was in range from the woman's position was a thirty minute drive from the church. Ivy had us there in ten. Rushing in like that without a plan was completely unheard of for Ivy. She was so fiercely protective of children though that she hadn't even thought twice about the risks. I had barely had time to grab my splat gun before being dragged out the door and set on her bike. Once we reached the airport it had only taken Ivy flashing her teeth at two employees to narrow the possible hangars down to two. We had lucked out at the first one and found a vehicle matching the description the mother had given us. _

_Ivy hadn't waited for me. She had sprinted from the bike like the hells were opening beneath her and headed for the hangar door. By the time I caught up she had already subdued the two living vamps. Well, subdued might have been putting it mildly. She had nearly ripped one of them in half. I assumed he'd been the one holding Alecia. I've never had the courage to ask her though. When I called her name she had spun around, Alecia cradled protectively in her arms, and went immediately into a fighting crouch. In that moment I had been granted a glimpse into Ivy's soul through the passion that blazed from her eyes. It had been intense. She had allowed her protective emotional barrier to be burned away in her desire to save that child. Everything Ivy was laid bare to me in those few moments before she realised I wasn't a threat and calmed down enough to put her barrier back up. _

That glimpse had plagued me for days. I started to see Ivy in an entirely new light. I had thought I had known her before that but I had been wrong. For days after, every time I looked at her I remembered those few, heart wrenching moments until _my_ barrier broke down and I couldn't fool myself any longer about my feelings for Ivy. My _true_ feelings for her. The absolute, unashamed and unwavering love. The need. The overpowering want and desire.

It had been two years since I took her in my arms and kissed her and begged her to forgive me for taking so long to figure it out. It had been two years since I hadn't been worried that I would never see her again every time she went on a run alone. Two years since _I_ had been on a run without first having a plan drawn up, and a back up plan. And a back up, back up plan. Two years since I had slept in a bed alone. Two years since I became a regular user of medicinal grade brimstone. Two years since I found that which had made me whole. Two years, and my only regret is all the time I wasted lying to myself before hand.

Here, in the kitchen, she took another step towards me and if the clues hadn't been enough to make me figure it out, the look in her eyes would have been all I needed. Setting down the spell components and turning to face her completely I held my arms out to her, inviting her into my space. Even after two years together she still waited for an invitation before coming near me when she was like this. She was still terrified of making me flee in fear. It wasn't going to happen.

Seeing my understanding, she quickened her pace until she was in front of me. Hands reaching for my hips she closed the distance between us and crushed our lips together. Though not a word was said, her actions were speaking volumes to me right now.

Something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong. Ivy was on the edge and she needed me to pull her back. She needed to feel and be surrounded by love and quiet acceptance. She needed something good to help temper the bad. She was still so fragile from Piscary's warped 'love' that sometimes she couldn't ground herself without help. I am now the one she comes to and I have been since I first took her in my arms two years ago. It didn't happen often, but when it did I had vowed to always be there for her. The first time had scared me senseless. A vamped out Ivy was scary, an emotionally broken Ivy was scarier in her rawness and unpredictability.

Sometimes the turmoil she faced caused her to simply break down and sob for hours and all she needed from me was to hold her until she cried herself to sleep. On those nights she would clutch me to her all night while she slept. Other times she would rage and scream the injustices of the world until she was so hoarse she could no longer speak then she would curl up in my arms and shake until the sun came up or until exhaustion finally claimed her. Sometimes she would come home and not speak or cry or rant at all. She would just look at me with such an intense vulnerability that al I could do was hold her and stroke her hair and whisper meaningless nothings to her. Sometimes it was a mixture of all of these.

She broke the kiss long enough to sob "Rachel," against my lips.

"I'm here love, I'm right here. Shhh." I soothed.

Then there were the times when something particularly bad had happened and it was as if she was incapable of feeling anything good at all. Times when she was desperate for a solid connection to another person, to know that she wasn't alone and that there was someone there with her. This seemed to be one of those times.

Wrapping her arms around me she deepened the kiss. Her tongue claimed my mouth as her own and demanded dominance. I sighed into her mouth and relaxed into her body, giving myself over to her completely. Feeling my acceptance, she backed me up to the island, scattering the raw spelling components with a sweep of her arm. She tugged my baby tee up over my head with one hand and fumbled at the zipper of my jeans with the other. She broke the kiss long enough to growl at the offending clothes. Before I could even blink, her mouth was on mine again, the shirt pooled on the floor beside us. Keeping our lips connected she set both hands to the task of removing my jeans. Finally she managed to undo them and push them past my hips.

Stepping back she looked at me. The hunger in her eyes was unmistakeable though they were still a solid brown. She hadn't vamped out, she was just hurting. Deeply. A low growl from deep inside her was the sound of approval for what she saw. Slowly, all the while raking her eyes over my near-naked form, she began to undress. I couldn't help but stare. We had been together for two years but the sight of her bare body before me still made me weak in the knees.

_She is absolutely beautiful_, I thought to myself. Ivory skin contrasted brightly against the black lace of her bra and panties. Toned muscles rolled in her shoulders as she pulled her shirt over her head. As she reached behind her back to unclasp her bra I felt liquid heat pool between my thighs and my breath hitch in my throat. The look in her eyes turned to a smouldering stare once she scented my arousal on the air. In an instant she had gone from emotionally broken Ivy needing to reconnect to vampire seductress Ivy who oozed sensuality. No one else would have caught it but I knew the initial pain was still there, she was just allowing herself to be lost in the more primal instincts her brain was supplying. She still hurt but to cope she allowed that unbearable pain to be taken over by feelings less foreign to her now. Lust. Need. Desire. Want. _Love._

While she had undressed I had just stood there, captivated. As she started towards me once again I snapped out of it enough that I was able to follow suit and rid myself of my own under garments.

I had been born with Rosewood syndrome. It had left me as a weak child that should not have survived past adolescence. Thanks to some genetic tweaking I had survived, though remained weak well into my teens. I worked hard to overcome that weakness and still worked hard to keep up my stamina and my strength. Thanks to that hard work, when Ivy came towards me intending to pin me to the counter, I was able to spin her and lift her onto the island now behind her.

As I settled her amidst the spilled components of my craft I revelled in the feel of her. Under my fingertips her skin was as smooth and soft as silk. As I ran my hands up her arms and over her shoulders Ivy dropped her head back and whimpered my name again. "Rachel. Rachel it was so bad. I cant –"

"Shh love, I'm here now. Just keep focusing on me."

Dipping my head to her neck I lathed my tongue over her skin, gently nipping as I went. My hands never stopped roaming her body as I worked my way down her neck to her chest. Pulling her to me, I peppered kisses over her breasts until I could draw her pebbled nipple into my mouth. Running my hands down her back I pulled her closer to the edge of the counter, guiding her to lay back with a gentle pressure on her chest. Ivy didn't need foreplay right now. She needed me. Around her. On top of her. Inside of her. I loved that I could give this to her though I hated the reason that it was needed.

I wrapped her legs around me and moved my hands to her hips as she laid there on the island. Gently caressing the tops of her hips with my thumbs I tried to see her face but the angle wasn't right. Her eyes were lost to me like this. Kneeling gently between her legs I stroked her slit with my tongue once before pulling back. I felt her body jerk at the touch and a low gasp escape her throat. Smiling to myself at how easily I could affect her I bent to her again, this time slowly taking her into my mouth.

She moaned my name again as I started to suck on the swollen knot of nerves, sucking it into my mouth and capturing it gently with my teeth. Rolling my tongue over it again and again, all the while massaging her hips and stomach with my hands.

As I felt her begin to pant I pulled back once more, staying apart for a few moments before again stroking her slit and ending with my tongue pressed hard against her clit. She gasped and arched her back into my touch. Quickly standing I slid one arm under her and pulled her up to me. I knew she wasn't done, but I wanted to look into her eyes as I slowly pressed two fingers deep inside of her warm, moist core.

Ivy never broke eye contact with me though, at that moment, I could see the struggle to keep her eyes from fluttering closed at the wave of pleasure I was causing in her. She needed this. She needed to see that I loved her and be reassured about just how absolute that love was.

Her hips rocked forward, pulling me as deep inside of her as she could take. A low rumbling sound started deep in Ivy's chest. It sounded halfway between a purr and a growl as she bit down on her lip to keep from crying out. She lifted first one and then the other hand to the sides of my face, her thumbs resting on my cheek bones and her long pianist fingers wrapping around to the back of my neck.

She took a deep shuddering breath as I started to move my fingers, still never breaking eye contact though she had dropped her chin closer to her chest. Looking up at me her full lips parted and her breathing turned to fast shallow pants as I increased my pace, still supporting her with one arm around her back. My hand was bathed in fresh waves of warm fluid as she rode my hand towards climax. I moved the pad of my thumb to press on her center and there it was; her walls clamped down around my fingers, her nails dug into the back of my neck and her legs tightened around my hips. She could no longer control her body. She threw her head back as my name echoed through the kitchen; torn from her throat in ecstasy.

I stood there holding her as she shook. She was now pressed fully against me her head on my shoulder and I could feel her tears dropping onto my fevered skin. "I love you Ivy Tamwood, with everything that I am or ever will be, I love you." I whispered into her hair while I withdrew my fingers and wrapped my other arm around her. When the shaking subsided I lifted her from the counter and set her feet on the floor. I could lift her easily enough but I didn't have her strength. I couldn't carry her through the church though not for the first time, right now I wished I could.

"Come on sweetie, let's get you someplace more comfortable," guiding her down the hall I opened the door to her room – our room now, and helped her get into bed. Her sobs continued though she was getting sleepy. "Shh love, I'm right here."

I crawled into bed next to her and pulled her close to me once again. She tucked herself under my chin and wrapped herself around me as best as she could. I heard her sobs subside and her breathing even out but I didn't stop alternating between stroking her silken ebony hair and rubbing my hand up and down her back for a long time after.

Sometime later, I felt the ripple go through Ivy that signalled the rising of the sun. I knew that her demons – like mine - would flee before the golden rays. I closed my eyes and finally allowed sleep to claim me.


End file.
